A thought on the Kindle Worlds thingy

[huinare]

I just woke up so this may be really poorly articulated, but anyway:

1. I understand the concerns that this flies in the face of fandom culture etc.  I do.
2. I don't feel like fandom overall is threatened by this (this is one case where I'd really hate to have to put my foot in my mouth, of course).  To me it sounds like a new way to get people to write things along the line of, say, Babysitters Club books.  (I don't really know the book series in question admittedly, so I apologize in advance if that analogy is not apt.)

Comments

[engarian.livejournal.com]

I'm perfectly content to sit at the sidelines and see what develops with this since I'm not writing in any of these fandoms, nor do I publish within any unis that are not my own. I can see where this might, however, have some consequences that are unintended and that may affect those of us who are merrily writing along in fandoms as silent, happy contributors.

The thing that really bothers me about this particular event is the contract and how really horrid it is towards the authors. I would never sign a contract like this nor recommend such a contract to others.

- Erulisse (one L)

[ladybrooke]

Meh, more trashy tv than Babysitters Club (I will admit being biased - I probably own a hundred of those books and still pick them back up once a year or so. Those, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys were my growing up series)....plus, I'm fairly certain the author won't let people write more Babysitters Club books (nor does it really have a huge active fandom that could, there's 700 or so stories on ffn). ...I know far too much about those books and the fandom.

My main worry is the reaction that this will get from outside people - accusations that we only write because we want money and such. (This would only be a huge problem (for me) if Christopher Tolkien decided that was the case...or if Warner Brothers decides to try and license for people to write movie fanfic, and CT gets pissed. Couldn't really blame him, either.)

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

This, yes!

I do worry it'll draw unwanted attention to everyone writing outside of those franchises (the vast majority of fan ficcers), but we've survived drama before. This is just big business trying to cash in on something they don't really understand at all.